News from Greater Minnesota and South Dakota

Civil liberties

May 20, 2017

We've noticed that some on our favorite rural Minnesota anti-Muslim activists are sharing a post on Facebook by anti-Muslim author Pam Geller. Here's a screengrab of her post:

There's only one Muslim currently serving in the Minnesota legislature, and that would be Ilhan Omar. Since the Minnesota House voted on HF2621, we can see who voted yes for the bill, introduced by state representative Mary Franson, R-Alexandria. Here's a screengrab:

"The bill won support from all but four of the 128 House members who voted, including Rep. Ilhan Omar, the country’s first Somali-Muslim legislator."

Is Omar grouped with the 123 other House members who voted "yes" or does that ambiguous comma group Omar with the four? Those coming to the article from Facebook might not look twice after seeing Geller's Facebook headline about Muslim legislators.

Update: A reader reminds us that Representive Omar also voted for the bill in Civil Law committee. [end update]

The Star Tribune copy within the article also broke from the standard journalistic convention of identifying lawmakers' party affiliation (see recent example here in the Strib). Geller opens:

This is evil. There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil.

Now, the author of the Senate version is voicing second thoughts about approving the legislation yet this session, though Senate GOP leadership have not committed to a course of action. “We all agree this practice is absolutely horrible, and something needs to be done,” said the author, Sen. Karin Housley. “How can we empower communities to address this practice from within rather than having Big Brother come down and say, ‘This is wrong?’ ”

Is this the new approach to law and order? Why have laws against murder or rape? Why not say, “How can we empower communities to address this practice from within rather than having Big Brother come down and say, ‘This is wrong?’”

Unsuspecting readers might be forgiven for thinking Housley is a Democrat, given both of Geller's headlines, but the author of the senate version of the bill is indeed a Republican from St. Mary's Point near Stillwater. The Star Tribune's copy editors didn't catch that omission.

One might think Geller could create yet a third headline to reflect that fact that state Senate Republican inaction, not "Democrats and MUSLIM legislators," is responsible for the upper chamber's lack of follow through.

It's not surprising why the anti-Muslim network in Minnesota is confused about this topic if they're swallowing the nonsensical spin in Geller's headlines.

Photo: Karin Housley, the Republican state senator with cold feet about an anti-FGM bill she authored. Its companion bill passed in the Minnesota House. Bonus: here's Willmar anti-Muslim activist Bob Enos' sharing of the Geller piece; note the screaming caps in the Geller Facebook post. Just as on Geller's own Facebook page, the factually incorrect headline persists, days later.

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 33166 770th Ave, Ortonville, MN 56278) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the paypal subscription button.

New GOP Party Chair Jennifer Carnahan hasn’t been on the job more than two days but she sent a clear message Monday night after a racist Facebook post appeared on the page for Minnesota Seventh District Republicans. Aimed at U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, the post was crude and called Ellison an “anti-Semite, anti-white, racist and fascist American.”

Carnahan issued a fast rebuke of the post and asked for the resignation of the individual behind it, though she did not name him or her publicly. DFL Chair Ken Martin criticized the GOP for the post.

Carnahan’s statement: “The recent 7th Congressional District Republican Facebook post is repugnant hate speech and in no way reflects the values of the Minnesota Republican Party, or the 7th Congressional District Republicans. I have asked for the immediate resignation of the individual responsible for this action. As Chair, I will not tolerate such activity from anyone associated with our party.”

The speed was unusual, but Carnahan’s swift response earned the praise of some supporters on Twitter, including state Rep. Jim Nash, R-Waconia, who wrote: “CD7 shows stupidity in great quantity. New MNGOP Chair does good job in rapidly condemning post and seeking resignation of idiots.” . . .

Bob EnosFrankly, calling Ellison anti-Semitic, anti-white, bigoted, and fascist may be a lot of things, but I don't see how any of that is racist. He's an elected politician, he makes a lot of bad calls, and he doesn't get a free pass. Even the "goat humper" comment isn't racist, if you think about it. It might be, were Ellison from a Middle Eastern country, or from Afghanistan, but he's not!

Enos reserved some of his scorn for Waconia state representative Jim Nash, a conservative Republican known for his strong policy positions on the Second Amendment.

Bob EnosAlso, Rep. Jim Nash would do well from painting Republican in CD-7 with the same broad brush. He indeed sounds like an idiot - we have enough trouble with the Democrats slurring us, they don't need HIS help!

(Minneapolis, MN) -- The Minneapolis Park Board last night voted to change the name of Lake Calhoun. They have opted to to rename the waterway Bde Maka Ska (Buh-day mah-kah- Skuh) which translates from Dakota to mean “white bank lake.” Advocates for the name change lobbied against the lake being named after former vice president John Calhoun because they believe he was a supporter of slavery. The Park Board will now send a request to the Hennepin County Board. The panel in turn must hold a public hearing, vote to approve the change and then make a proposal to Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Bob Enos It's sort of a toilet in reverse. The French use them in place of toilet paper, as it shoots water upward, over a porcelain receptacle that looks like a toilet.

Another Facebook friend later replied:

Lynn Woitalla So, they want to change the name of a well-known lake and call it a toilet for white people? And that's not discriminatory or insulting to anyone? So, only white's can use it??

Well, no, Lynn, "they" don't. It's solely Mr. Enos' notion that making a joke insulting Dakota people and their language is suitable for public discourse. One could argue rationally against reverting to the older name for the lake without making offensive pun, but Enos apparentlty can't stop at that. A good short review of the history and recovery of the language--and a moving short film--can be found at Dakota Iapi Teunhindapi: We Cherish the Dakota Language.

Were Enos simply a private citizen, little of this would be a problem for Jennifer Carnahan and the Republican Party of Minnesota. The uncivil and racist speech would simply be yet another toxic old guy exercising his civil liberties to open his mouth and demonstrate just what an idiot (to borrow Jim Nash's term) like those individual Democrats leaving racist nastygrams for Carnahan that Mike McIntee reported in Racist Post Sparks Threats, Racial Slurs Aimed At MN GOP Chair.

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 33166 770th Ave, Ortonville, MN 56278) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the paypal subscription button.

The Facebook page from Minnesota’s Seventh Congressional District Republican Party on Monday night featured a post with racist and derogatory language superimposed on a photo of U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, D.-Minn.

It was swiftly rebuked by DFL and GOP leaders.

Republican Party of Minnesota Chair Jennifer Carnahan issued a statement saying she had asked for the “immediate resignation” of the person responsible for the post.

In a phone interview a short time later, she would not identify the person who posted the anti-Ellison photo and words on Facebook but said that person “has been identified ... and they no longer represent our party. They resigned immediately.”

The post was up for several hours on Monday night. It has been taken down, but screen shots of it were posted on Twitter and other social media sites. . . .

It featured an image of Ellison, dressed in camouflage hunting gear and posing with a wild turkey he apparently had shot. The post writer also derided U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., saying “Peterson has been sliding [sic] up to head Muslim [expletive] Keith Ellison. Heck, they’re now hunting buddies. Does that mean Muslim refugees coming to western Minnesota?”

Never underestimate the 7th Congressional District Republicans. On Monday, a post on the official Facebook page of that unit of the Republican Party of Minnesota tried going after DFL U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson, who represents the area, by connecting him to DFL U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, who represents Minneapolis.

I am opposed to waterboarding muslim terrorists, but probably not why you think. I am opposed to waterboarding muslim terrorists because it is a waste of resources. They are muslims, they are terrorist, we know where they are from, we know where their buddies are, we know where thier mosque's are, we know millions of these parasites travel to Mecca every year and when...FRAG 'EM! Simplicity. I love when it all comes together!

The post was picked up by Jennifer Brooks at the Star Tribune, who gave the hat tip to Bluestem, and Whitley was soon history.

More CD7 GOP Facebook page awfulness

Whitley's posts are being cited as earlier evidence of a lack of boundary limits by CD7 Republicans, but the district's social media rudeness on its twitter and Facebook accounts caught heck before Carnahan needed to spank the admin, with an earlier anonymous offender also removed. In November 2015, Talking Point Memo's Sara Jerde summed it up in Minnesota GOPers Get Heat For Posting About Democrats’ ‘Negro Problem’:

The chairman of the Minnesota Republican Party was forced to apologize Tuesday after a local GOP branch posted about state Democrats’ “#Negroproblem” on social media.

The 7th Congressional District GOP borrowed the term from a blog post they shared on Facebook and Twitter on Sunday, according to the alternative weekly Minneapolis City Pages. The blog post, written on the website Our Black News, was about the state’s Democrat-Farmer-Labor party, which the author wrote had called for a “special session” to address the “Negro problem in Minnesota.”

“MN DFL now propose a ‘special session’ to deal with their self-created ‘#Negroproblem,” the posts read, according to City Pages.

The DFL party quickly put the The 7th Congressional District GOP on blast.

“You don’t have to look far to find ignorant hate speech masquerading as acceptable party messaging,” DFL state Chairman Ken Martin said in a statement, according to the report. “However, this is not the first time the Minnesota Republican Party and their affiliates have posted racially insensitive material.” . . .

In response to the criticism, state Republican Party Chairman Ken Downey tweeted that the person in charge of the local party’s social media accounts was “relieved of duties” . . .

. . .Founded in 2007, Chain Bridge served John McCain’s presidential campaign in 2008 and Mitt Romney’s in 2012. House Speaker John Boehner keeps ­fundraising accounts there; so does the Republican National Committee. It’s also served political action committees for Altria Group, the National Association of Convenience Stores, and the Outdoor Advertising Association of America. “The largest issue that we would always have with people is that they’d be like, ‘Why would we use this Podunk little bank in McLean, Virginia?’ ” says Bradley Crate, Romney’s 2012 chief financial officer. He routinely refers clients of his consulting firm Red Curve Solutions to the bank, including both Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Trump. Chain Bridge offers services tailored to the idiosyncrasies of campaigns, which deposit and then spend enormous sums quickly, with no credit history to lean on. “I know I can call my contacts at Chain Bridge Bank and have an account open in like 15 minutes,” Crate says. “If you go to a much larger bank, you have a ­bureaucracy you have to deal with.” . . .

Of course, one might not have to deal with a larger bank's bureaucracy had Miller chosen a financial institution in CD7 run by conservatives. We suspect such creatures exist.

Top image: Screenshot of the Facebook post from the 7th District Republicans (Micheal Brodkorb screenshot) via the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 33166 770th Ave, Ortonville, MN 56278) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the paypal subscription button.

Apr 04, 2017

It is a melancholy object to those who drive on the Evil Metro's interstate system or travel on public transit, when they see the streets, the roads, and bus and light-rail doors, crowded with African-American protesters and their allies objecting to the deaths of their fellow citizens at the hands of law enforcement, followed by three, four, or six members of Unicorn Riot, all in video gear and importuning every passenger for an interview.

We think it is agreed by all parties that this prodigious number of road, transit and mall shutdowns is in the present deplorable state of the State of Minnesota a very great additional grievance; and, therefore, whoever could find out a fair, cheap, and easy method of making protesters sound, useful and visible members of the Gopher State, would deserve so well of the public as to have her statue set up for a preserver of the North.

As a resident bucolic Greater Minnesota, we have often observed farmers mowing and haying publicly-owned right-of-ways along trunk highways in broad daylight, despite laws that prohibit mowing before late summer. And just last week, Chris Swedzinski’s ditch-mowing legislation passed in the Minnesota House, forbidding any rules to govern the gathering and selling of fodder taken off these roadside public(if narrow) lands.

A showdown over roadside mowing in rural Minnesota has unleashed a surprisingly passionate debate at the Legislature about the culture of farming, property rights and the desperate plight of bees and monarch butterflies.

It’s put wildlife in a fierce — but so far losing — competition with Minnesota farmers for the right to the increasingly valuable grass, flowers and other vegetation that grow along 175,000 acres of state-owned roads across the state.

A bill headed for a vote on the House floor would prevent the Minnesota Department of Transportation from asking landowners to get a permit before they mow roadside ditches and grassy shoulders . . .

In fact, a law on Minnesota’s books since 1985 prohibits roadside mowing before Aug. 1 and after Aug. 31 — a long-ago effort to protect nesting pheasants.

But it’s been widely ignored, transportation officials said; only about 40 permits a year have been issued for 12,000 miles of state-owned roadway. Officials said the agency has no power or penalties to enforce it.

In rural Minnesota, landowners adjacent to the roads largely believe they own the land to the centerline and the government has rights to use it, he said. While that’s largely true for county and township roads, it’s not so for the state.

That conflict--and the law-breaking behavior of the farmers--has earned both a lot of sympathy from Minnesota lawmakers and attention from the press.

Should Governor Dayton sign the omnibus public safety bill, Bluestem thinks that there's one easy way for BLM protestors to avoid arrest while gathering attention (and perhaps a little revenue). Don't break a Minnesota law by blocking traffic. Instead, pick up a few vintage tractors, mowers, and haying implements and head out to rural Minnesota's state highways before or after August. Make hay while the sun shines--and sell your hay bales to buy more farm equipment and a place at the table of policy making.

Since such law-breaking is deemed acceptable by the state legislature, the act of civil disobedience (and selling state property) won't be followed by the sort of draconian punishment Zerwas demands for blocking highways and transit without the chance of turning a dollar. It's an all-Minnesota win.

Bluestem professes, in the sincerity of our heart, that we have not the least personal interest in endeavoring to promote this necessary work, having no other motive than the public good of our state, by advancing agriculture trade, providing for justice, relieving the equity gap, and giving some pleasure to the legislators eating, talking, sleeping, playing cards and lounging around looking pale in the Minnesota House retiring room while the body is in session.

Bluestem has no property beside a state highway from which we can propose to get a single bail, nor do we keep even a pygmy goat for which we need fodder. Indeed, we find fodder enough for our purposes simply by paying attention to the Minnesota House.

Photo: In July 2016, the shooting death of Philando Castile by police prompted community members to block part of I94 in St. Paul. Should increased penalties for this behavior become law, Bluestem recommends that future civil disobedience consist of mow-ins along state highways. Image by Glen Stubbe/Star Tribune.

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 33166 770th Ave, Ortonville, MN 56278) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the paypal subscription button.

More than 52,000 people died of drug overdoses in 2015, and roughly two-thirds of them had used prescription opioids like OxyContin or Vicodin or illegal drugs like heroin, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those overdoses have jumped 33 percent in the past five years alone, with some states reporting the death toll had doubled or more.

“It drives what I do,” said Minnesota state Sen. Chris Eaton, a Democrat from Brooklyn Center whose daughter, Ariel, died almost 10 years ago. “It’s a crisis. We’re losing a generation.”

In trying to increase regulation of opioids, lawmakers are up against powerful adversaries. A joint investigation by the Associated Press and the Center for Public Integrity last fall found that pharmaceutical companies and allied groups spent more than $880 million nationwide on lobbying and campaign contributions from 2006 through 2015.

The industry group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and Purdue Pharma, one of the nation’s largest opioid manufacturers, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday on pending legislation in Minnesota and elsewhere.

Based on a lobbyist registration on March 10, the interests of the latter stakeholder will no longer be defenseless against grieving parents serving in the Minnesota state legislature or citizens outraged by the surge in drug overdoses statewide. Linda Barefoot has registered to lobby in Minnesota on behalf of Purdue Pharma LP with the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board.

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 33166 770th Ave, Ortonville, MN 56278) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the paypal subscription button.

Let you Legislators know Minnesota should not have a Real ID Driver's Licience. When did we need "papers" to travel to another State in the Union? We cannot allow the Feds to control our Citizen's ability to travel from one place to another. Plus - You cannot be denied your rights to fly by TSA if you don't have this special license. This is nothing but an effort of the Feds to grab more control over a State controled function. What is next? A special Fed License to purchase Groceries? Remember - Obamacare stopped you from buying Insurance across State Lines.

Minnesotans — and many of the lawmakers who represent them — generally want the state to make its driver’s licenses valid for airplane travel and other federal purposes before next year.

Minnesota is one of just three states that have not changed their licenses to comply with the federal requirements and have never received an extension to do so, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The other two are Missouri and Washington. Four other states have expiring extensions to comply.

The Department of Homeland Security last year said that by January 2018, it would require Real ID-compliant licenses from all states. States granted extensions to change their licenses would have until 2020.

Heckova slippery slope toward making the feds the grocery cops.

Photo: Is Rep. Dennis Smith, center, really trying to get the feds to license that adorable shopping cart? Or just trying to get Minnesotans on a plane? (If we recall correctly, the dual-track license solution was part of Representative Rick Hansen's proposal last January,but why solve a problem when an entire caucus can dither for another year). Image via Press and News.

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If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 33166 770th Ave, Ortonville, MN 56278) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

Dec 31, 2016

The Swift County Monitor reports that Minnesota House Public Safety Chair Tony Cornish would like to lease the closed private prison in Appleton--and that Corrections Corporation of America has rebranded itself as CoreCivic.

Swift County is already gearing up to make another effort to get the State of Minnesota to lease or buy the Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton.

At the county board’s meeting Dec. 19, Commissioner Gary Hendrickx, District 1-Appleton, reported that he and Commission Chair Pete Peterson, District 3-south Benson, had attended a meeting of representatives of lobbying firm Goff Public and CoreCivic, the owner of the prison.

CoreCivic is the new name of Corrections Corporation of America, the country’s largest owner of private prison facilities. It changed its name this past fall. . . .

Also at the meeting was District 17A state Rep. Tim Miller, R-Prinsburg, and state Senator-elect Andrew Lang, R-Olivia. The meeting was called to formulate a strategy for lobbying the Legislature during the 2017 session. . . .

It has been estimated that reopening the prison would create 350 jobs for western Minnesota, have a $13 to $15 million payroll, and provide a significant boost to the local economies of the many small towns from which the employees come.

Hendrickx told fellow commissioners that it seems that the appetite to purchase isn’t as strong as it was last year; there is more of an appetite to lease, he said.

Republican Tony Cornish, chair of the state House’s Public Safety and Crime Prevention Policy and Finance Committee, seems to have more of an appetite for a lease, Hendrickx said. The lease doesn’t require the big upfront dollar amount a purchase would, he said.

Minnesota Democrat Gov. Mark Dayton, who has not looked at any use of the Appleton prison favorably, still has indicated he leans toward a purchase if it is done.

For the Appleton area, whether it is a lease or a purchase, it is the jobs that are important, Hendrickx said. But it is also important that the agreement that is reached whether a purchase or a lease shows a commitment to use the facility for the long term to ensure job stability, Hendrickx said. [emphasis added]

Unintentional humor? The story is filed under Death Notices. It's also clear from Commissioner Hendrickx that for Swift County, this thrust isn't about overcrowding or concern for the inmates, as was claimed during the session, but jobs.

[Miller] did manage to snag some campaign cash from Corrections Corporation of America's executives and their spouses, as well as from a couple of CCA corporate lobbyists. From his pre-general election report to the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board (available here):

All that money must be smooth as Tennessee whiskey for blunting the blow of rejection by Swift County's finest news source (We're not being snarly about the Monitor, whose editor is highly respected among country newspaper people).

Screenshot: We're not sure if the Swift County Monitor wanted to file this story under the obits.

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 33166 770th Ave, Ortonville, MN 56278) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

A community meeting hosted by energy company Enbridge quickly dissolved Tuesday after a Bemidji police officer asked environmental activist Winona LaDuke to leave.

The meeting, held at the DoubleTree hotel in Bemidji, was meant to give community members and landowners information about the proposed replacement of Line 3, an Enbridge oil pipeline that runs from Alberta, Canada, through northern Minnesota to Superior, Wis.

LaDuke, who founded the Native-led environmentalist group Honor the Earth, and other activists hoped to ask Enbridge questions regarding the maintenance of the old pipeline if it is replaced with a new one. A Bemidji police officer asked LaDuke to leave after she and other activists tried to quiet the tightly-packed room about 15 minutes after the meeting began.

"They held an informational meeting — and a lot of people attended — and they didn't seem willing to answer questions," LaDuke told the Pioneer as multiple officers told attendees to leave the room. "They were not prepared to give answers."

As the officer repeatedly told LaDuke to leave, saying he had been asked to do so by Enbridge, others in the crowd took video, telling the officer that it was a public meeting and that LaDuke should be allowed to stay and speak. . . .

Some who attended the meeting were disappointed with the format. The room was crowded, with no chairs. Audrey Thayer, a citizen who attended the meeting, said she had hoped for a more formal presentation.

An Enbridge-hosted meeting in Clearbrook, Minn., set for Wednesday has been cancelled after a similar meeting in Bemidji Tuesday ended early when police told an activist to leave.

Both meetings were scheduled to allow landowners and community members to ask questions and voice concerns regarding the replacement of Line 3, an Enbridge oil pipeline that runs from Alberta, Canada, through northern Minnesota to Superior, Wis.

Yesterday in Bemidji, MN, 150 concerned community members showed up at an Enbridge meeting to get information about the proposed Line 3 pipeline. Most of the attendees were Anishinaabe. There was no formal presentation, just scattered tables for "meet and greet" style questions. But we have questions we want publicly answered, so Winona asked them publicly. Why did Enbridge allow human rights violations and police violence against water protectors at Standing Rock? Is their pipeline more important than 21-year old Sophia Wilansky's arm? Are they planning to bring tanks and riot cops to Northern Minnesota to build Line 3?

Unfortunately, these questions were not answered and have never been answered. Winona was intimidated by Bemidji police officers who attempted to unlawfully remove her from the building. At no time did the property owner, DoubleTree Inn, ask her to leave. This is yet another example of police serving the desires of corporations INSTEAD of the law and public safety...and the people standing up and protecting our own. Enbridge walked away from the meeting. At the end of this article, their media specialist Shannon Gustafson says that the meeting was shut down because it became "unsafe." Why is Winona asking questions dangerous? Why is a room full of Anishinaabe dangerous? If a group of white people had shown up and asked questions, would the meeting have been shut down for lack of safety?

We will not allow Enbridge to do business in our communities without accountability. We have seen the destruction they cause. They owe Minnesota some answers. How is this project going to be any different?

Photo: At the request of Enbridge corporation staff, a Bemidji police officer asks Winona LaDuke to leave a meeting at an area hotel. The Enbridge staffers left the room. Photo by Jillian Gandsey | Bemidji Pioneer.

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 33166 770th Ave, Ortonville, MN 56278) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

“We should’ve done a better job in vetting the speaker,” superintendent Ben Barton said regarding the speaker who visited the school on Wednesday, Nov. 30 with a penchant for walking the line between the separation of church and state.

Several parents upset by portions of the speech called The Argus to share their concerns, wondering if this was a school sanctioned event. . . .

According to a story in the Caledonia Argus, Keith Becker, who created the Nebraska-based evangelical foundation in memory of his late brother Todd, spoke to Caledonia High School students in a Nov. 30 assembly that troubled many parents. . . .

But the community reaction said otherwise. According to the report, Becker’s presentation had “some students and community members feeling uplifted and moved, while others felt put out and insulted,” and parents questioned why the school agreed to host the assembly.

It comes as no shock that many students felt excluded or insulted. The TBF has a history of proselytizing and spewing homophobic venom. Its main goal is to evangelize public school students.

Time and time again, TBF has proven to not abide by church-state separation. In 2010, Americans United warned TBF about its unconstitutional practices, noting that TBF “can be held responsible for infringing on the religious neutrality of public schools.”

How does this organization keep worming its way into public schools? It’s actually quite sneaky. The foundation’s reps offer talks on secular subjects relevant to teens, but they quickly pivot to fundamentalist fear-mongering.

The group often holds an assembly for students during the day that includes religious content. But while there speakers plug another event at the school in the evening. The latter event is voluntary but is usually promoted by the school, and students are encouraged to attend. There they get a hellfire sermon. . . .

. . . if you get wind of a group like this coming to the public schools of your town, report it to us.

Photo: Gustave Doré's illustrations of Lucifer, King of Hell, and such from Dante's Inferno scared the heck out of our editor when she was a wee schoolgirl growing up in the Minnesota River Valley. One auntie also gave her a Bible illustrated with Dore's fabulous plates. We are uncertain whether this present brought us closer to Jesus, but studying the details in the pictures gave us less time to get into trouble.

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 33166 770th Ave, Ortonville, MN 56278) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

I am a conservative and a voter. I want to express my disappointment of politics now moving into live theater. Theater to me has always been a time to get away from daily issues and enjoy the story and performance.

However, after recent events, I have decided not to attend AAAA Theatre's presentation of "A Christmas Carol." I am not interested in exposing myself and family to some liberal rant.

Please notice that my protest does not include trespassing on private property, throwing dog doo at police officers, breaking windows or stopping traffic on a public roadway.

Those four empty seats you see at the theater are those of me and my family.

Steve Moore

Alexandria, MN

"AAAA Theatre" is the Alexandria Area Arts Association, and a conservative Republican source in Alexandria told us that the volunteer cast has worked pretty hard to put together the show. She didn't know Moore.

We couldn't find anything about the letter writer, and while we highly doubt VPEOTUS Pence will stop by to enjoy the show, Moore may be right about one thing.

Dickens was something of a dirty hippie who thought "A Christmas Carol" was a good way to reach people about bleeding heart liberal stuff, according to Wikipedia:

Dickens was not the very first author to celebrate the Christmas season in literature,[4] but it was he who superimposed his humanitarian vision of the holiday upon the public, an idea that has been termed as Dickens' "Carol Philosophy".[7] Dickens believed the best way to reach the broadest segment of the population regarding his concerns about poverty and social injustice was to write a deeply felt Christmas story rather than polemical pamphlets and essays. . . .

Dickens was keenly touched by the lot of poor children in the middle decades of the 19th century.[14] In early 1843, he toured the Cornish tin mines, where he saw children working in appalling conditions. The suffering he witnessed there was reinforced by a visit to the Field Lane Ragged school, one of several London schools set up for the education of the capital's half-starved, illiterate street children.[15]

Inspired by the February 1843 parliamentary report exposing the effects of the Industrial Revolution upon poor children called Second Report of the Children's Employment Commission, Dickens planned in May 1843 to publish an inexpensive political pamphlet tentatively titled, An Appeal to the People of England, on behalf of the Poor Man's Child, but changed his mind, deferring the pamphlet's production until the end of the year.[16] He wrote to Dr. Southwood Smith, one of 84 commissioners responsible for the Second Report, about his change in plans: "[Y]ou will certainly feel that a Sledge hammer has come down with twenty times the force—twenty thousand times the force—I could exert by following out my first idea". The pamphlet would become A Christmas Carol.[17]

In a fundraising speech on 5 October 1843, at the Manchester Athenæum, Dickens urged workers and employers to join together to combat ignorance with educational reform,[8][18] and realised in the days following that the most effective way to reach the broadest segment of the population with his social concerns about poverty and injustice was to write a deeply felt Christmas narrative rather than polemical pamphlets and essays

Brandon Dixon, who plays Aaron Burr in the hit musical, began the message by thanking Pence for attending the play and saying, "We hope you will hear us out."

"We, sir -- we are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights," Dixon said. "We truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us."

God bless us, every one.

Image: A poster for "A Christmas Carol." Regardless of political leanings, Bluestem hopes all of our readers get out and support local arts and artists.

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 33166 770th Ave, Ortonville, MN 56278) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

YUP - the Black Caucus is still Left. And still there dragging other Black Americans down with them.

We've captured this special moment in Minnesota political social media in the screengrab at the top of this post.

For some reason, Bluestem doesn't think Hughes is angry about the homophone error, but the fact that the Congressional Black Caucus exists. As for "dragging other Black Americans down with them," we think that perhaps Hughes and the page administrator might not be the best folks to caption and explain this photo.

The photo is very similar to that taken by Associated Press photographer J. Scott Applewhite at a press conference in February. ABC News features a slightly cropped version of it on its website with this cutline:

Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., a leader of the civil rights movement, joins the Congressional Black Caucus Political Action Committee in endorsing Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton as prominent African-American Democrats rush to her aid ahead of the Feb. 27 Democratic primary in South Carolina, Feb. 11, 2016, during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington.

The trilogy, anchored by the 1965 march on Selma, is authored by Lewis, Andrew Aydin and artist Nate Powell. The Eisner-winning project was started because Aydin, the digital director in Rep. Lewis’s office, was a comic-book fan — a passion deeply appreciated by his boss. Sixty years earlier, a teenage John Lewis was inspired to follow a life of nonviolent protest after reading a comic about the Rev. Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks and “the Montgomery story.” . . .

Civil-rights campaigner and congressman John Lewis was in tears as he accepted America’s National Book award for young people’s literature in Manhattan on Wednesday night, speaking of how as a child he had been turned away from the public library for being black.

Lewis won the prestigious US honour for the third volume of his graphic memoir March, which tells of his vital part in the civil rights movement in the 1960s. “This is unreal. This is unbelievable,” said Lewis as he took to the stage with his visibly moved co-authors Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell.

Recounting how he grew up “very, very poor” in rural Alabama, Lewis said there were “very few books in our home”, recalling a trip in 1956 to try and borrow some books from the library.

“I had a wonderful teacher in elementary school who told me: ‘Read, my child, read’, and I tried to read everything. I love books,” said Lewis. “When I was 16 years old, some of my brothers and sisters and cousins [were] going down to the public library trying to get public library cards, and we were told the library was for whites only, not for coloureds. To come here and receive this award this honour is too much. Thank you.”

Read Lewis's congressional biography here. Perhaps Hughes and the page admin might trying checking some books about the civil rights movement out of their local libraries if they fancy that Lewis is "dragging other Black Americans down."

However, the admin and Hughes' nincompoopery isn't just reserved for animus toward iconic civil rights giants like Lewis or for the ability of black members of Congress to form a caucus.

A Love Supreme?

There's their take on performance artist Vermin Supreme's presidential campaigns.

But another photo that the Facebook admin shares--and Hughes likes--suggests that perhaps these fellows aren't the brightest porch lights on the block.

We arrived at this conclusion upon viewing the inclusion of a screenshot of Vermin Supreme in an album of six photos that allegedly document Democratic (and the Left! And Hampshire College!* Oh Noes!) perfidy. The caption on this gem:

Yes, this is a Presidential Candidate speaking at Hampshire College. Looks very serious, doesn't he? But, he is a Democrat.

If you're not hip to Vermin Supreme, here are a few highlights from the "Performance artist, anarchist, presidential candidate, and activist's" Wikipedia entry:

The 2016 Election is over. Or is it? If you thought You Won, well you won parts of the Election, but there is still lots of work to do and hard challenges are going to come our way. Collin Peterson squeaked out a tight win this time, but he is still setting in Moorhead’s personal Congressional Seat, ignoring all his other constituents as usual. Mark Dayton, the “Advil Governor” is still Governor of Minnesota, as least if he can still escape meetings by walking his puppies. Yes, Republicans took control of their State Senate and Legislature. But we are still hampered in the Congress buy the likes of the white baiting Muslim Ellison and the left’s cutie-pie Klobuchar, who deflects all genuineness whenever she can and is overly fond of running and ducking away from her state constituents. And then there is the Left-Drum-Beating-Obama-Rubber-Stamp-Stump-Kissing Al Franken, you know, the California Senator they spine-chillingly gave to Minnesota using Chevy Chase’s Poker Winnings.

The Crazies are still out there, burning the Flag, disrespecting the National Anthem, calling the Flag a symbol of their imagined “terror”, allowing George Soros to float funding through left wing groups for protests and riots. Many of our Colleges are now creating “safe zones” for students who can’t handle any outcomes they don’t agree with. Hampshire College is just the tip of the ice berg. And many other colleges are teaching outright leftist socialism as the favorite choice of government over all others.

Yes, many professors are teaching their students to hate America, to hate work, to hate Capitalism, to hate its Flag, to hate its Founders and our country’s sacred documents, and in addition to all that, to even hate its mainstream people. That is, you, friend.

They have been and are still being taught to hate the-get-a-job-hard-work-lets-pay-the-bills-and-put-good-food-the-table-for-your-family-wage-earners-who-want-to-get-ahead-in-life. These professors praise the virtues of pure Socialism, Marxism, Stalinism, Castro, and Chavez, before Washington, Franklin, or any of the Founding Fathers. This crazy leftism has even turned on Jefferson. But, they have not gone away. They are disorganized right now, but – they are getting valuable camera time. They are still here and will soon regroup. And they are going to bitch and whine and they are going to hatch the wildest political and policy schemes, - we have not heard the end of this yet. They are already working to train and hoodwink our Youth so they can have their United Nations Utopia.

So, Get Ready! All hands will be needed on Deck. Your help will be needed. Your Support will be needed. Your vigilance will be needed. Your activism will be needed. We have come a long way to taking some of our county back, but we are not quite there yet. There is a lot out there that is just plain scary.

We couldn't agree more with the last sentence after reading that post. Okay then. It's no wonder people in the Seventh think Collin Peterson is a Democrat.

Images: Screengrabs from the MN07 Republican Facebook page. Yes, we live among people who share such notions on public Facebook pages.

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 33166 770th Ave, Ortonville, MN 56278) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

Stories about how fake news pervades the internet and how it even helped Donald Trump win the presidency have been wide spread in the news media over the past couple weeks.

First, we don’t think the Republican candidate won because of fake news. He won because a majority of those who voted in states that count in the electoral college did so because of his conservative social stands, because he was a Republican, because many undecided voters detested Democrat Hillary Clinton, because many Democrats wished they had another choice, and because people wanted change in Washington.

But news that is made up, twisted far from the truth, and intended to deceive is a significant problem on the internet and to an informed citizenry. Too often people reading it take what they see and read on the internet as truth, repeat it to friends, and to like-minded people through Facebook sharing, through Tweets, and through other social media. . . .

Another Times story tracks a post by a Texas man who had fewer than 50 Twitter followers, but whose simple Tweet of a photo of a line of large busses lined up along a street in Austin brought him instant celebrity. Because the busses were lined up relatively close to where a Trump celebration rally was taking place, and because he thought the timing of the busses appearing was relatively close to the time of the rally, he surmised that they must have brought protestors. He never saw anyone get on or off the busses.

But it wasn’t long before his Tweet was shared 16,000 times on Twitter and 350,000 times on Facebook. Even Trump saw it and Tweeted saying, “Just had a very open and successful presidential election. Now professional protesters, incited by the media, are protesting. Very unfair!”

The busses had, in fact, brought a group of people attending a business convention to the venue where they would be meeting. . . .

Bluestem found a very similar example of a Facebook account sharing fake news in the congressional district that's home to both the Monitor and our poor country blog. Our old friends at the Minnesota 7th Congressional District shared the post capture in the screenshot above:

We suppose these are the same protesters we are seeing Busing from City to City. Paid Agitators Fox News says George Soros is flipping the bill for.

The Milo Yiannopoulos post purported to depict buses that brought protestors to Chicago.

Not so fast, Western Minnesota Republican activist Allen Anderson chimed in a few hours later:

Allen E Andersonwrong these buses were used to bus Cubs fan in for the world series parade according to a post I saw elsewhere. somebody actually took the time to call badger lines to find out why they were there instead of just assuming what they were there for.

The page administrator thought that was nice to know, but didn't remove the post--or edit the headnote.

Yiannopoulos is a senior editor at Breitbart, a Right-wing online magazine and the most-read conservative news website in the States — and whose chair, Steve Bannon, has just been appointed President-elect Donald Trump’s chief strategist.

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 33166 770th Ave, Ortonville, MN 56278) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

Nov 26, 2016

November 8th marked a big day for cannabis advocates. Ballot questions were passed in four states legalizing adult use, and four more states legalized medical cannabis. Sensible Minnesota congratulates the tireless efforts of advocates in California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada for legalizing adult use and in Arkansas, Florida, Montana, and North Dakota for medical use. We also applaud the hard fight put up by advocates of adult us in Arizona who were ultimately overcome by a reefer madness ad campaign funded by Chandler pharmaceutical, a company which manufactures fentanyl, and Discount Tire. The Drug Policy Alliance has provided a breakdown of the different ballot questions, as well as commentary on the presidential election, available here.

November 8th also elected a new president who will take office on January 20, 2017. With the changing administration, we may also see a changing policy for how the federal government enforces cannabis laws. Under the current Obama Administration, federal cannabis prohibition laws are enforced based on a series of executive orders of the Attorney General’s office. These executive orders were issued under former Attorney General Eric Holder’s watch and outline eight priorities for cannabis prohibition enforcement:

Preventing the distribution of cannabis to minors;

Preventing revenue from the sale of cannabis from going to criminal enterprises, gangs, and cartels;

Preventing the diversion of cannabis from states where it is legal under state law in some form to other states;

Preventing state-authorized cannabis activity from being used as a cover or pretext for the trafficking of other illegal drugs or other illegal activity;

Preventing violence and the use of firearms in the cultivation and distribution of cannabis;

Preventing drugged driving and the exacerbation of other adverse public health consequences associated with cannabis use;

Preventing the growing of cannabis on public lands and the attendant public safety and environmental dangers posed by cannabis production on public lands; and

Preventing cannabis possession or use on federal property.

The new presidential administration will likely set new policies in regards to enforcement priorities of federal cannabis prohibition. The president-elect has indicated his support for both medical cannabis and the states’ right to regulate cannabis for adult use, but many of his closest advisors, including New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Vice President-Elect Mike Pence, have expressed adamant opposition to cannabis legalization.

On Thursday, November 18th we learned that the president-elect plans to appoint Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions as Attorney General. Senator Sessions, along with his partner in crime Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, have been adamantly opposed to cannabis legalization efforts, for both medical and adult use. Just in April, at a Senate drug hearing, Sessions said “we need grown-ups in charge in Washington to say marijuana is not the kind of thing that ought to be legalized, it ought not to be minimized, that’s in fact a very real danger.” Sessions, a big fan of Nancy Regan’s ‘Just Say No’ campaign in the early 1980’s went so far to say that the Obama Administration’s policies reverses “20 years almost of hostility to drugs that begin really when Nancy Regan started ‘Just Say No.’”

Senator Sessions is a “worse than worst case scenario” for the movement, but we’re hopeful the president-elect influences his policy choices by continuing the policies set forth by the Obama Administration. This is also an opportunity for the U.S. Senate to fail confirmation of Sessions, and stand firm against prohibition. Those in the industry, advocates, patients, and consumers should follow this closely, contact their Senators, and be on high alert for federal enforcement on January 21, 2017.

An additional level of protection, at least for patients in medical states, is the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment that prohibits the Department of Justice, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, from using funds to arrest or prosecute patients, caregivers, and businesses operating in compliance with state medical cannabis laws. This amendment was passed as part of a larger appropriations bill that deals with federal government spending.

The appropriations bill is passed annually and addresses the government’s discretionary spending. In 2015, amendments, including the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, protecting states with medical cannabis and hemp programs were passed by wide margins, we expect these amendments to remain in place. However, another amendment that would prohibit the use of federal funds for enforcement in states that permit adult use failed 202-222 in the Republican controlled House.

We do not know if a Republican-controlled Senate will provide funds for enforcement of federal law. If they don’t renew the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment and other defunding measures, expect full enforcement by the federal government under an Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Minnesota

Many Minnesotans are also wondering what the outcome of our state elections mean for cannabis policy right here at home. As you may know, Republicans won control of the Senate and the House of Representatives, and a Democratic Governor remains in office through 2018. We understand there is a great need to not only expand allowable conditions under Minnesota’s current medical cannabis program, we need to also see expansions such as allowing plant materials which is cheaper to get to retail, additional providers of medical cannabis, and allowing patients who do not live near a patient care center to grow at home.

Although we are optimistic the Republican-controlled Legislature will work hard to expand patient access, historically, Republican controlled legislatures in Minnesota have been difficult for advocates to work with. In 2014, the current medical cannabis legislation was passed by the DFL controlled Senate with a 48-18 vote. Republican Senators Benson, Chamberlin, Housley, Newman, Pratt, and Senjem voted in the affirmative and were reelected in 2016, so it is our hope that one or more of these Senators will step forward to help gain better access for more patients.

In the House of Representatives, Republicans will retain control, and we expect to find the biggest roadblock to be in the Public Safety Committee, previously chaired by Rep. Tony Cornish who has been a staunch opponent of pro-cannabis legislation and criminal justice reform in the past. We are hopeful that the House Republicans will appoint a Public Safety Chair who will not obstruct progress for political gain, but rather will hold hearings on any proposed pro-cannabis legislation. Whether this is Rep. Cornish or another Republican leader, we believe this will be the biggest roadblock in the reform movement.

In analyzing the results of Minnesota’s legislative election, we look to the party platforms for guidance in how we expect the controlling majority may act. The Minnesota GOP passed two platform resolutions regarding cannabis policy, one in favor of medical use and one opposed to adult/recreational use. As an aside, the DFL passed an action agenda item in 2016 supporting the legalization of both medical and adult-use cannabis.

We don’t expect to see any major changes to the current legislation, nor do we expect the Minnesota GOP controlled legislature to pick up the topic of adult use. It will be up to Minnesota in 2018 to elect pro-cannabis candidates to engage in real reforms.

This post first appeared on the Sensible Minnesota blog on November 21, 2016.

Vice President/Treasurer of Sensible Minnesota, Maren Joyce Schroeder is a paralegal and Qualified Rule 114 Neutral for Borgos Law, PLLC, has nearly ten years of experience working in various areas of law including financial, corporate, intellectual property, nonprofit, tax, and criminal defense.

She has a B.S. in Paralegal Studies and an M.B.A. in Legal Administration. Maren is a PACE Registered Paralegal and a Minnesota Certified Paralegal. She serves as the Regulation Review Coordinator for the NFPA and the Director of Professional Development for the Minnesota Paralegal Association. As the chair of MPA’s Regulation Committee, she worked in 2014 to develop the Minnesota Certified Paralegal program. A member of the Minnesota State Bar Association, she was recently appointed to the MSBA’s Task Force on Alternative Legal Services Models. Also active in the community, Maren serves on her city’s Planning & Zoning Commission, is a volunteer crisis advocate for victims of sexual assault, and is a volunteer family and school mediator.

Correction: Bluestem Prairie had incorrectly attributed authorship of this post to another officer of Sensible Minnesota. We regret the error.

Photo: This is what legal medical cannabis looks like in Minnesota: an extract or oil from one of two companies that grow and process the plant. Whole plants (leaves) for smoking? Not allowed.

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 33166 770th Ave, Ortonville, MN 56278) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

Nov 19, 2016

Following a community meeting at St. Dominic's Church in Northfield Sunday at which people shared "their worries, concerns and even alleged instances of discrimination in town," Northfield's City Council passed a resolution promoting a "safe, inclusive and welcoming community," the town paper reports.

Since the United States presidential election Nov. 8, several Northfield Latino community members have been voicing their worries, concerns and even alleged instances of discrimination in town.

At Tuesday's City Council meeting, community members asked for the city to provide a display of support for minorities in Northfield, and the council answered. In a 6-1 vote, councillors passed a resolution "affirming the city of Northfield's commitment to be a safe, inclusive and welcoming community for all.” . . .

All of this comes on the heels of a meeting at St. Dominic's Church in Northfield Sunday. About 100 residents, white and minority, gathered at the church to share concerns, worries and solutions for living in the United States after a contentious national election.

Many across the nation have worried that the recent election results are cause to believe that a large percentage of Americans are unwelcome to certain populations. Those fears were presented and talked about at Sunday's meeting.

"The community gathered to talk about what’s going to be happening with [Donald] Trump as president-elect," said one of the organizers and speakers Marlene Rojas. "There were so many concerns in the community about kids being bullied in the schools and also adults in the workplace."

Rojas went on to describe a few specific stories brought forward by community members.

"One of the testimonies... this man works at a local business, and one of the clients came in and told him 'he better pack his suitcase because you’re going to be deported soon,'" she recalled.

"Another man shared that some co-workers showed him videos of people burning the Mexican flag," she went on. "The same man's son came home crying and said he doesn’t want to go back to school, because some kids told him he is going to get deported."

Northfield School District Superintendent Matt Hillmann was on hand to express his support for the community, saying that he will be working hard to ensure discrimination does not take place in the schools.

Mayor-elect and current city councilor Rhonda Pownell was also on hand. Community members asked her to lead action at the city level to put protections in place against discrimination. . . .

As the results of the election came in, some people rejoiced and others felt disappointment. This is a normal part of democracy. However, many in Northfield and across our nation felt great anxiety and fear.

Northfielders filled St. Dominic Church Sunday in support of our neighbors whose future now may feel uncertain. In that meeting, we both heard and reinforced two messages: Discrimination of any kind will not be tolerated here; and all people, regardless of race, sex, gender identity, sexuality, religion or culture, are important to our community.

To this end, the City Council passed a resolution Tuesday to reaffirm, “Its commitment to the equal protection of and service to all residents and visitors, regardless of background or identity.” Through the leadership of our Human Rights Commission, we will be working with all parts of city government to improve areas where our community can be more equitable. With this resolution, we also affirm that the city of Northfield, including the Police Department, does not and will not use city resources for the purpose of enforcing federal immigration laws.

Since many of the concerns around the election involve families with children, we encourage residents to read the statement by Northfield’s Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Hillmann, which underlines the community’s determination to make all children in Northfield Schools safe and welcome: http://northfieldschools.org/nfldlead/2016/11/177/.

The diversity of our community enriches all of our lives. Taking the time to get to know people who are different from us, to walk a mile in their shoes or to feel their pain and anxiety will only serve to make us better. As current and incoming mayors, we urge our community to be compassionate to all, and pledge our own work to ensure safety, well-being and equal opportunity for Northfielders.

I, along with several other school staff, attended a meeting at the Church of St. Dominic yesterday afternoon. Father Dennis Dempsey organized the meeting so members of the Hispanic community could share their concerns and anxieties following last week’s presidential election. The church was nearly full and included a cross-section of the larger Northfield community who attended to support our Hispanic friends and neighbors.

The speakers shared their concerns and almost all shared worries for their children and how they are treated. They shared some specific concerns of insensitive/inappropriate comments made to their children by other children at school. They also shared concerns about things they have heard happening to Hispanic and children of color in other communities.

An immigration lawyer spoke and explained that while he understood the anxiety over immigration law, policy, and deportation. He reassured the community that the election would not have immediate impact on immigration law and policy. He stated he was very confident that everyone who was at the meeting would be here four years from now. He stated he would be available for those who had specific concerns.

Mayor-elect Rhonda Pownell and I spoke at the meeting too. Both of us stated clearly that Northfield is a place where hate and discrimination will not be tolerated. I explained to families that District administrators, teachers, and staff support their children unequivocally and not only want them to feel safe, but valued. I encouraged them to report any incidents of inappropriate comments, harassment, or discrimination to their teachers or principals. I assured them we have policies and procedures in place to follow up and address any concerns or incidents that may occur.

Regardless of politics, it is clear that we are experiencing unprecedented conditions following a national election. We are prepared to support every student in our school. We have systems in place and a strong common belief that all students are welcome in our schools and we will ensure a respectful envrionment for them to learn. Our staff is steadfast in their commitment to greet students each day with a warm smile, to be visible and present in our halls and common spaces, and to demonstrate ongoing care for our students. Our staff will be vigilant and intervene in situations where there are behavioral issues. I cannot emphasize this enough — please report any incidents of inappropriate comments, harassment, or discrimination to building administration. When they have specific details, they are well trained in how to address these kinds of concerns.

Northfield Public Schools staff is dedicated to preparing every student for lifelong success. We stand ready to partner with our community to realize this vision and to reinforce that Northfield is a place where all are welcome to live, work, and learn.

Photo: Northfield's motto welcoming people to the college town south of the Cities in Rice County.

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 33166 770th Ave, Ortonville, MN 56278) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

Nov 18, 2016

The Bemidji Pioneer and Lakeland Public Television are reporting that incidents of harassment in Bemidji, Beltrami County seat, college town and center for many many Native American services has led to the creation of #BemidjiRespect.

Bemidji Mayor Rita Albrecht and a group of residents are working to highlight Bemidji as an inclusive community after they’ve heard of several recent incidents of hostility and harassment toward local citizens.

The effort began Friday, when Albrecht was contacted by three residents who informed her that their friends and family had experienced discriminatory harassment.

"A group of us met and talked about our concerns and we decided that this isn't the way Bemidji is. We decided that we should make a statement about what our values are in Bemidji," Albrecht said in an interview Wednesday.

The result is a document titled "Standing Together for #BemidjiRespect."

The statement reads that Bemidji views any of these incidents as "absolutely unacceptable, here or anywhere.

"We invite you to stand with us as we affirm shared values of mutual respect and appreciation for our differences," the statement continues. "Our community seeks to build bridges of inclusion, awareness and understanding across all divides. We face up to challenges and address them together. We hold one another accountable for doing the right thing."

Word has spread about the statement, and Albrecht said people from across the city are asking to be involved.

"The only thing we had thought of was to put out this statement. So far, the community has rallied around this idea and have said that they want to do more," Albrecht said. "So, we're also putting the question back to the community about what it wants to do, because that's where the energy is."

According to Scott Faust, director of communications and marketing for BSU and Northwest Technical College, at least 50 organizations and businesses are expected to endorse the statement by Thursday afternoon. . . .

"I've also been contacted by one of the members of Shared Vision (a local community group working to improve race relations) and he offered to be of assistance, and I think that's really awesome that they want to do something with us," Albrecht said. "I think there are a number of organizations in our city that could be helpful including Shared Vision."

The plan for the growing group is to publish its statement in the Pioneer this weekend while also creating a way for those who are interested to “opt in” to the effort.

"I'd like people to focus on the things that unite us, rather than divide us," Albrecht said. "We all share values of wanting to have the best for our family, our children and to live safely."

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 33166 770th Ave, Ortonville, MN 56278) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

Ruthie Hendrycks, who drove in from southern Minnesota, said she was stirred to action by Trump's hardline stance on immigration. "The citizenry is awakened. Trump is a movement now," Hendrycks said. "It's not just voting for the man, it's voting for the man that has started for the movement and woken up so many people."

It's unfortunate that MPR simply left readers thinking that this was a random woman who'd wandered out of Southern Minnesota to laud Trump's anti-immigration sentiments. It's saddening that she's become normalized as a standard issue Republican, when back when, she was far to the right of a Republican governor.

With many people despairing of Trump's movement lasting past Election Day (including our guest writer Phillip Cryan), perhaps it's time to look back at the way in which a prank can defang Hendrycks's brand of malice. Here's Dan Feidt's video of "Robert Erickson's" first prank:

While Hendrycks might have been at the airport, her old nemesis Robert/Nick was nowhere around. Like many progressive Minnesotans, he's been working on get-out-the-vote (GOTV) efforts for state legislative candidates. Indeed, this contrast may may be one of the most hopeful signs we've seen on this beautiful November day in Minnesota.

Photo: Via Facebook, Scott Hendrycks (left) and Ruthie Hendrycks (middle) pose for a photo on their way to the Trump rally.

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 33166 770th Ave, Ortonville, MN 56278) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

Let's assume for the moment that Hillary Clinton will win Tuesday’s election and become our next president. More than that, let's assume she wins by a large margin. Both Donald Trump the candidate and the ugly views he has championed throughout this campaign are dealt a humiliating electoral defeat. Not just Democrats and independents but also a significant percentage of Republicans join together in rejecting Trump and all he has come to stand for.

If all that happens, can the tens of millions of us who have been appalled from the beginning by Trump’s open bigotry and misogyny now look forward to breathing a sigh of relief – an “our long national nightmare is over” moment, at last – on November 9th? Would a landslide defeat for Trump put this hateful chapter of our history behind us?

Hardly.

Hateful social and political forces, once given a degree of official permission and room to move in a society – and more so, once mass-mobilized around a genuine hope in their own near-term ascendance to power – do not recede because they lose one battle or one election. History just doesn’t work that way.

“I don’t think this movement is going away,” one fervent Trump supporter in Ohio, Judy Wright, recently told a Boston Globe reporter. Don Black, one of the founders of the white-nationalist website Stormfront, put it similarly: Trump “has sparked an insurgency, and I don’t think it’s going to go away.” On Saturday the New York Times reported on the growth of well-armed, far-right militia groups across the country. Many in these groups fear a Clinton initiative to forcibly take away their guns. Armed white men have already rallied, with their weapons on prominent display, at demonstrations in support of the Confederate flag and at public meetings on whether to allow the building of new mosques.

So let’s not kid ourselves. The ugly, unapologetically white-supremacist, anti-Muslim, and sexist forces now running loose in our body politic – they’ve always been there, of course, but they’re now out in the open again, and proud to be out in the open again – are going to be with us for a long time, no matter what happens on November 8th. In fact, their public and political expressions are likely to get uglier, their words and actions scarier, after the election – perhaps especially if it’s a landslide win for Hillary.

For Judy Wright (the Trump volunteer interviewed by the Globe), if her candidate loses, “all I know is our country is not going to be a country anymore. I’ve heard people talk about a revolution.” There has been a lot of discussion and coverage over the last couple weeks of the increasingly fevered warnings from Trump and his supporters that the election will be stolen from them, including Trump’s own already-infamous refusal at the final debate to commit to accepting the results of the election. His supporter Judy Wright captures the logic of the Trumpist view concisely: “If Hillary wins, it’s rigged.”

Making hate normal

But even these before-the-fact declarations of a conspiracy pale – in terms of scariness and cause for concern – in comparison to the violence-infused vision of another Trump supporter interviewed in the same Boston Globe piece: Dan Bowman, a contractor, told the Globe, “If [Hillary’s] in office, I hope we can start a coup. She should be in prison or shot. That’s how I feel about it. We’re going to have a revolution and take them out of office if that’s what it takes. There’s going to be a lot of bloodshed.”

Closer to home, when I posted a picture on social media a few days ago of my father – who served in the 101st Airborne in Vietnam and is the sort of political independent who’s still proud to have voted, twice, for Perot – standing with a lawn-sign that reads “Another veteran who could never vote for Donald,” one of my father’s cousins immediately replied with this: “I don’t believe [your dad] is foolish enough to vote Killary. Put the bitch in JAIL.”

What is truly distressing about this sort of reaction is not just the vile sentiments and words themselves but the way many of us are beginning to receive them: as a known, expected part of our political discourse. I find myself noticeably less shocked and angered by such comments, today, than I would have been if I’d seen them just a few weeks ago. I honestly can’t imagine that anyone I know would have posted such a statement two years ago……it just didn’t happen.

Even at the worst, scariest moments of anti-Muslim sentiment and jingoism under George W. Bush, I don’t remember there being widespread, self-assured use of language like this. I don’t think anywhere near as many people with hateful thoughts felt comfortable or licensed to broadcast those thoughts publicly. But now this kind of hateful, often violent, often sexist, racist, anti-Muslim or xenophobic speech is becoming normal.

Many educators, journalists, and academics have expressed concerns recently about the effect Trump’s words (and the words of his supporters) are having on children. You’ve already read, I’m sure, about the “Build the wall!” chants at high school sports events with Latino athletes. But did you know that two-thirds of teachers surveyed in a recent Southern Poverty Law Center study reported that their minority students have expressed fear about what might happen to them or their families after this election? Teachers reported kids struggling to make sense of their new belief, based on the invective of the presidential campaign, that “everyone hates them.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given Trump’s focus from the first day of his campaign on maligning Mexican-Americans, many teachers reported Latino students expressing fears of deportation. (Teachers also reported white kids using “You’ll be deported!” as a new playground taunt against Latinos, and white kids using “Dirty Mexican” as a new insult against other white kids in schools with no Latino students.) But Latino kids were not alone in expressing this fear: several teachers reported that Black students expressed the belief that they could “be deported to Africa” or enslaved.

We will not know all the effects the normalization of Trump’s hate-speech has had on our society for many years, until we can look back on all this with some perspective and – let’s pray – a renewed sense of shock that such things were actually uttered, as late as 2016, by the nominee of one of the country’s two main political parties. Without knowing the specifics yet of all the effects they’ve had, we can be confident both that they are extensive and that they are felt especially deeply by young people who are still shaping their understanding of the society they’re part of and their own place (or not) within it.

What happens when hope is gone?

As difficult as it’s been to watch the newly-legitimized forces of hatefulness and division in action over the last few months – to hear the unvarnished bigotry and misogyny of what so many of our fellow citizens, even our friends and family members, have apparently been longing for many years to openly say to their Black, brown, female, Muslim, disabled, or in-any-other-way-different-from-themselves neighbors – we have to remember that what we’ve been watching and hearing so far is actually a version of these forces infused with hope.

They’ve rallied around Trump’s candidacy, seen a real prospect for dramatic and (in their view) positive national transformation in having him becoming president. If he loses – and even more so, if he loses big – the hope that has been attached to their efforts until now will be largely extinguished, leaving only the deep resentments, the reflexive blaming of varied “others,” the regular denial of simple and obvious facts. The rancor.

We’ve heard Trump celebrate vigilantism before. Most memorably, he offered to pay the legal bills for a white male supporter who sucker-punched a Black man protesting at one of his rallies. In making the offer, he explained that the assaulter “obviously loves his country.” Trump’s crowds have loved this rhetoric and his many threats and “jokes” about physical violence against dissenters, throughout his presidential campaign.

Even if the election proves a landslide, a complete repudiation of Trump’s candidacy, tens of millions of Americans will – despite all the horribly offensive things he has done and said – have enthusiastically voted for Trump on November 8th. We need to all try to grapple with that reality – not just with our bewilderment, anger or incredulity about it, but with a clear-eyed recognition of what it’s likely to mean for us as a polity in the months and years to come.

Where do you think those tens of millions of people will take their activism and energy, their sense of grievance and anger, after a loss – especially if they believe in a conspiracy theory pushed by Trump about the election being rigged?

I am genuinely frightened about the kinds of violence, vigilantism, and other forms of abuse against “others” (i.e., anyone who is not a white male straight non-disabled Christian) we may see in the weeks and months after the election.

Indeed, the chaos of individual vigilantism or mob violence could come as soon as Election Day, if some of his supporters heed his many calls for them to go looking for non-existent voter fraud in what he calls “other” polling places. (In case you can’t guess what he means by “other” polling places, here’s a line from a recent Trump rally speech: “Take a look at Philadelphia, what’s been going on, take a look at Chicago, take a look at St. Louis. Take a look at some of these cities, where you see things happening that are horrendous.”)

Crowd pleaser

There’s a revealing, horrifying story Trump repeatedly told on the campaign trail earlier this year. His crowds thrilled to it every time. It’s apocryphal, has been proved pure fiction, but of course Trump didn’t let that stop him. It’s about General John Pershing, when he was serving the U.S. Army in the Philippines in the aftermath of the 1899-1902 war. I think it’s best to let Trump speak for himself here in telling it (from the transcript of a February 19, 2016 rally in North Charleston, South Carolina):

You know, I read a story. It’s a terrible story, but I’ll tell you…..should I tell you, or should I not? [Cheers] Early in the century, last century, General Pershing – did you ever hear? rough guy, rough guy – and they had a terrorism problem. And you know there’s the whole thing with swine and animals and pigs and you know the story, they don’t like that. And they were having a tremendous problem with terrorism. And by the way, this is something you can read about in the history books. Not a lot of history books, because they don’t like teaching this. And General Pershing was a rough guy. … They had terrorism problems, just like we do. And he caught fifty terrorists who did tremendous damage and killed many people. And he took the fifty terrorists, and he took fifty men and he dipped fifty bullets in pigs’ blood. You heard that, right? He took fifty bullets, and he dipped them in pigs’ blood. And he had his men load his rifles, and he lined up the fifty people, and they shot forty-nine of those people. And the fiftieth person, he said: You go back to your people, and you tell them what happened. And for twenty-five years there wasn’t a problem. Okay? Twenty-five years, there wasn’t a problem.

It remains difficult for me to believe – even with all the subsequent revelations of offensive, despicable things this man has said – that these are actually the words of the endorsed candidate for president of one of our two main political parties.

More important, it’s difficult to believe how much his audiences loved this story.

This is not a case of a story being used to illustrate some interesting aspect of the past, or to raise questions about the present, or to give depth or color to things we already know. Instead, this is a story with an unequivocal, bang-you-over-the-head moral. Trump expected the lesson to be clear to his rally crowds, and I’m confident it was. I hope it’s equally clear to you. The prescription here is for unapologetically brutal violence against “others” – in this case, specifically Muslims. The prescription is not just for violence but for relishing cruelty.

There have been many far bigger moments – the bragging-about-sexual-assault tape with Billy Bush; the refusal in advance to accept the results of the election; the attacks on Alicia Machado, the Khans, and so many others – that have defined Trump for voters in recent weeks. But I think this story about Gen. Pershing – a complete fabrication, like so much of what Trump says – captures better than any other moment in the campaign the frighteningly ignorant worldview this candidate espouses and the danger our country faces now that tens of millions of his supporters have come to believe that it’s acceptable to utter such racist, ignorant, bloodlust-infused nonsense in public.

Because here’s the most important thing: what’s scary about Trump isn’t Trump.

There have always been cranks, avowed white nationalists, and assorted conspiracy-theorists saying the same sorts of things Trump is now saying. What’s different and very scary right now is that tens of millions of Americans are rallying openly to their cause.

We’ve all become so focused – transfixed even – on the daily videos of this awful man and the shocking, horrible things he says that we are missing the larger story. To understand what’s really significant about this moment in our history, we need to turn our attention away from Donald Trump. We need to turn it toward the people in his rally crowds.

When Trump told the bullets-in-pigs’-blood story at rallies earlier this year, his crowds would become delirious with glee. Loud as hell, with roaring cheers, applause, laughter. They were exultant. Ecstatic.

More recently, we’ve all seen the footage of his supporters chanting things like “Lock her up!” and “Trump that bitch!”

These are the forces we are going to be dealing with in the weeks and months to come, after Election Day is behind us. There are tens of millions of people looking forward with great hope, today, to voting for Donald Trump on Tuesday, with an active embrace of his unapologetic racism, sexism and hate. Pandora’s box is open.

Regardless of whether Trump decides to parlay his fame into a new television station or retreats into real estate, whether he retires from the political scene (incredibly unlikely, but we can dream, right?) or continues as the standard-bearer and mouthpiece for a mass movement opposing the Hillary Clinton administration, all those people shouting “Trump that bitch!” at his rallies – and all the family members or friends I’m sure I’m not alone in having, suddenly saying things like “Put the bitch in JAIL” on our Facebook pages – are not going anywhere. They are emboldened and angry and ready to take action.

Those of us who are appalled by their open bigotry and misogyny must be prepared, starting the very day after this election – or maybe even the day of, if his army of “poll watchers” emerges as an actual force – to fight back vigorously against jingoism, ignorance, racism, misogyny, hate.

Taking matters into their own hands

Many observers today are far too quick to dismiss the possibility of mob violence and vigilantism emerging out of Trump’s base of supporters. Large-scale, systematic white mob violence against people of color, as a regular occurrence, is only two generations back in our history. (And systematic violence by whites against people of color continues today with considerable ferocity – it just tends to manifest now through official channels like the police, not vigilantism.)

As Isabel Wilkerson observes in The Warmth of Other Suns, her Pulitzer-winning history of the Great Migration: “Contrary to modern-day assumptions, for much of the history of the United States – from the Draft Riots of the 1860s to the violence over desegregation a century later – riots were often carried out by disaffected whites against groups perceived as threats to their survival.” Her account of white riots against Black migrants who were seeking housing in white neighborhoods of northern cities in the 1960s – including destruction of apartments and houses, firebombing, stoning, overturned police cars, and rampaging mobs as large as 4,000, in riots that sometimes lasted for several days – is truly chilling to read.

I fear that aggrieved, angry Trump supporters will seek to take our country back to such times – will be inciting violence, not just in words but in deeds, against Muslims, Latinos, Blacks, women, or anyone that’s not part of their vision of the America that used to be “great.” Whether Trump concedes or not will of course play a huge role in shaping whether his supporters accept the legitimacy of the election. But even if Trump immediately concedes – perhaps because it’s an historic rout – I don’t think we should expect the racism, xenophobia, misogyny, and hate given new permission and room to move in our society by his campaign to go quietly into the night. Instead, I think we should expect them to flare up in dramatic and violent new forms.

Maybe I’m wrong, and this is all overblown and unnecessary. I pray that is so.

But if it turns out I’m not wrong – and after all the ugly, unpredicted twists and turns of this campaign since its “Mexicans are rapists” start, how could you possibly be sure? – we need to be ready to fight, and fight like hell, in defense of American decency and diversity, in defense of the dignity and safety of all people, the second Hillary wins.

Preparing for the worst, hoping for the best

Between now and Tuesday, we of course all need to just buckle down and work as hard as we possibly can to win this election – knocking doors, making calls, busting our asses to achieve a decisive, message-sending margin in the presidential race and to win all the other vitally-important state, local and federal races we’re engaged in. The world is anxiously waiting to see what message the majority of Americans send in this election. The larger the margin, the stronger the message. And frankly we need to send a message to ourselves as well – that there is still something kind and good and hopeful about our country, something worth standing up and fighting for. That hate is not one of our core values.

But at the same time we do all that work to win on Nov. 8th, we should be preparing ourselves for Nov. 9th. Progressives should be getting prepared to hold Hillary to the many strong policy positions she’s taken over the course of her campaign, to provide an active pull from the left in a way we failed utterly to provide in the first couple years after President Obama’s election in 2008. Just as important, we should be preparing for the possibility that some of Trump’s supporters respond after this election with not just vitriol but violence.

Getting ourselves ready to deal with a new wave of ugliness and vigilantism after the election, but then finding out things are unexpectedly calm, would be a glorious way for us all to experience the next few weeks. But facing a new wave of ugliness and vigilantism unprepared, shocked by it out of a complacent celebration of an electoral repudiation of Trump, would be the opposite: hellish. It could set us back in many different ways all at once. So the rational choice right now is to get prepared, while hoping the preparations prove to have been needless.

Those of us unlikely to ever find ourselves under direct attack by the forces of hate and division – straight white males like me, for example – have a particular responsibility to stand up and fight back. Why? There’s a certain justice – if most of the hatefulness and violence comes, as it almost certainly will, from white men – in having white men be the ones to go confront it. And on a practical level, we are the ones most likely to be able to do so without jeopardizing our safety.

A brief and personal illustration: the lunchroom supervisor at my kids’ elementary school – an unfailingly kind, generous, loving young man, beloved by all the kids whose lives he touched and known by them as “Mr. Phil,” Philando Castile – was murdered by the police while he strived to follow the very letter of the law. In contrast, if I choose to openly break the law in order to stand up for something I believe in politically (which I’ve done a few times, so I speak from direct experience), it is almost certain that I will be able to do so without ever fearing for my own physical well-being.

So here’s my suggestion about what we should do, after this election, if it turns out I’m right about the ugliness soon to come: we should take seriously the recent words of the clearest, strongest, most moral voice in our country right now, Michelle Obama. “An attack on any one of us is an attack on all of us,” she said in a speech last week. Let’s take that literally. When and if any aggrieved Trump supporter first commits an act of violence against any Latino, Black, Native, Asian-American, female, LGBTQ, disabled, Muslim, Jewish, or in any other way “othered” fellow American, we should show up by the thousands – white men especially – in that place as soon as we hear about it, to nonviolently condemn what they’ve done, to commit ourselves to peaceful resistance against all such attacks, and to dramatically, massively demonstrate to other people who might be thinking about engaging in such acts what sort of response they can expect if they follow through.

Again, I sincerely hope I’m wrong in having these fears of what’s to come after this election. I hope we can all just celebrate a decisive victory, put this ugly chapter behind us, restore a basic shared commitment to civility and truthfulness in our politics, and move on with the many debates and policy initiatives needed to make progress and win justice.

But if, sadly, I’m right about the violence and vigilantism to come, and if we do manage to rise to the occasion and do something dramatic to put a stop to it, when we get there let’s recite together a few lines from Langston Hughes – in the faith and hope that we can somehow still build a country, almost a half-century after he died, that is worthy of his faith in it:

O, let America be America again – The land that never has been yet – And yet must be – the land where every man is free. The land that’s mine – the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME – Who made America, Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain, Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain, Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose– The steel of freedom does not stain. From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives, We must take back our land again, America!

O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath – America will be!

Phillip Cryan holds a Masters in Public Policy from the Goldman School at the University of California, Berkeley. He is Executive Vice President of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, a union of more than 35,000 hospital, clinic, nursing home, and home care workers.

Photo: Phillip Cryan, taking part in a 2011 protest over bank foreclosures on homes.

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 33166 770th Ave, Ortonville, MN 56278) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

The NARF dropped "a combined $30,000 to help commercial realtor Scott Hoss unseat an incumbent, and to re-elect city council president Randy Staver," Richter reports.

With development anticipated to blossom as Rochester's DMC (Destination Medical Center) rams up, it's not hard to ascertain the national group's purpose in spending on candidates it believes will help members' business interests.

But what's the stake in North Mankato, population estimated 13,529 in 2015?

Hagen said the he disagreed with the 10 percent rental-per-block ordinance, a position spelled out on his website in the post, 10 Percent Rental Rule:

Recently the City of North Mankato established a new rental cap of 10%. I proposed an alternative to the city that was based on clear rules and strong enforcement, but the city chose to not even discuss it. . . .

The rental rules in North Mankato are definitely in need of change, all agree to that, but what really needs changing is the way in which North Mankato City Government involves citizens in the decision making process. Many of us, as concerned citizens, believe that non-compliant landlords and tenants should be made to answer for their actions, but that the city should not paint all tenants and landlords with the same broad brush. The involvement of concerned citizens in the process of government is helpful to the process. No one has all the answers , but by working together we can come to better solutions to challenging issues. . . .

Read the entire post on the blog. Hagen assumed his public opposition to the rule caught the PAC's eye; he stressed that although his objections to the new rule stemmed from a concern for property rights, he also was in agreement with the American Civic Liberty Union's assessment of the ordinance.

Some took issue with the cap's 10 percent threshold, while others worried the cap would cause rents to rise and rental options to become scarce. And some were concerned with the way city officials conducted its public meetings on the cap issue.

Many of them spoke out at a public hearing in opposition to the cap.

"The problem lies in the zoning codes and the land use regulations," said Matthias Leyrer.

Leyrer, a City Council candidate who blogs on urban planning and architecture, believed the council's decision would negatively affect the local housing market.

He wasn't the only one. Local realtors representing the Realtors Association of Southern Minnesota Board of Directors publicly opposed the cap, as did a representative of the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota.

"We see that historically these initiatives, these ordinances, have been used to exclude minorities in cities or neighborhoods," said Julio Zelaya, a coordinator of ACLU's Greater Minnesota Racial Justice Project. . . .

Mayoral candidate Tom Hagen, who has had issues in the past with the city of North Mankato over its handling of noise complaints, took the city to task for the way city officials handled the rental density cap issue. While the public meetings were open to everyone, city officials only mailed meeting notices to property owners.

"You need to get the citizens of this community involved in this process, everyone who's here, and come up with a reasonable process that works for all of us," he said.

You may have been sent to my website by a mailer that was sent by the National Realtors Association. In small type on that mailer, you will see that it says the mailer was not mailed by direction of the candidates. I would like to restate this. This mailer was sent without my knowledge as per campaign finance laws.

While I am very grateful that a group that promotes home ownership and works with property owners of all types have endorsed me, I want to make two things very clear:

I did not know about this mailer, nor did I ask or suggest that it be sent on my behalf in any way.

This does not mean that my vote is for sale. Period.

If you hear anyone talking about me trading my vote to the realtors association to overturn a ordinance or anything of the sort, please have them reach out to me. I would be happy to talk.

Bluestem hopes that voters understand that both candidates had nothing to do with the mail piece--which fortunately isn't a nasty attack on the others running for the same offices.

That being said, we are nonetheless discouraged to see a national organization's spending reaching down this level. Both candidates speak to the need to engage local citizens in them local government processes; this is a fine goal.

Big national PAC dimes clanging? Not so much. Unfortunately, in the era of Citizens United (oh the irony) little can be done to make Hagen's and Leyrer's voices stand out to voters rather than mail from absentee interests.

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 33166 770th Ave, Ortonville, MN 56278) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

Adams Publishing Group announced today that it intends to purchase ECM Publishers Inc., founded by former Gov. Elmer L. Andersen, which is one of the largest publishers of weekly newspapers in the country.

ECM has 50 individual publications reaching more than 600,000 households across central Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

“We are excited to welcome the ECM associates to our APG team in Minnesota,” said APG Chairman Stephen Adams. “Our company is headquartered here, and my family has a long newspaper history in the state of Minnesota. ECM has done a fine job navigating through difficult times, and producing the highest quality print and digital products. We commend them for their efforts, and wish the Andersen family the best in their future endeavors.” . . .

A billionaire backing Donald Trump is taking advertising into his own hands.

Stephen Adams, a billboard magnate who made his fortune in a half-dozen different business ventures over the last five decades, is pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into a pro-Trump campaign. Yet it is not the Trump campaign or a Trump super PAC that is spending over $650,000 to boost the Republican nominee -- it is Adams himself, who his buying his own billboards in a set of swing states.

It is an unusual purchase and a throwback to a previous era when the wealthy had close to unfettered control over how their dollars were spent. Adams disclosed the spending this week in independent expenditure reports almost always filed by political action committees or nonprofits, rather than individuals: $150,000 in North Carolina, $200,000 in Pennsylvania and $300,000 in Michigan.

That is not a trivial amount of money, given the long struggles of Trump high-dollar efforts. If donated to a PAC -- staffed by professional operatives and fundraisers -- Adams would instantly become one of Trump's top donors.

But Adams is hanging a shingle.

"Mr. Adams is a long-time supporter of, and contributor to, the Republican Party," said an Adams aide, Rich Zecchino. "He has contributed these advertisements to the presidential campaign in furtherance of that historical support."

The digital billboards produced by his company, Adams Outdoor Advertising, are not flashy, with simple white text reading "For the people" overlayed on a navy background accompanied with an American flag. The bottom reads "Trump Pence 2016" in bold. And it is not the first time that Adams has gone outside the normal campaign finance system to support his chosen candidate. A Republican donor for decades, Adams financed similar billboard campaigns in 2000 and 2004, federal election records show, spending $1 million each cycle in order, when asked on federal forms for the purpose of his independent expenditure, "to win election." . . .

A search of the Open Secrets database reveals Stephen Adams had contributed $1,008,982 in Independent Expenditures, Communication Costs and Coordinated Expenses for Republicans as of October 26, 2016.

None of the billboards appears to have been sighted in Minnesota, additional evidence that this isn't a swing state.

And here The Donald and his supporters whine about media bias. Perhaps Mr. Adams' giving at the top will cancel Mr. Hubbard's reluctance to support Trump, although his down ticket largesse to the pachyderm party is impressive as ever.

A native of Adrian, MN, Cedric Adams was "the 'best known voice' in the upper Midwest" from the 1930s through the 1950s, according to his own Wikipedia entry, and the radio celebrity's newspaper column carried in 20 papers marks the family's "long newspaper history in the state of Minnesota."

The rest of the family's "newspaper history" is of relatively recent origin, according to articles published by local venues in Ohio and Maryland upon the firm's acquisition of local papers. In 2014, Jim Phillips of the Athens News reported in Local daily gets swept up in massive media sale:

A little over six years after it was bought by a Texas-based newspaper chain on behalf of an Australian mega-bank, The Athens Messenger has been sold again.

The buyer this time is the corporate persona of a multi-millionaire (some say billionaire), whose business background is in billboards, banks, retail stores, RVs, magazines and direct marketing; who is new to newspapers; and who reportedly likes to dabble in music and French vineyards.

The purchase, which was announced with almost no fanfare on the part of the buyer, is part of a much bigger deal involving a total of 34 print publications, special print products, digital media assets and commercial printing facilities, according to a report (apparently based on a news release) posted by Editor & Publisher magazine March 14.

Adams Publishing Group LLC (APG) - apparently principally owned by 76-year-old private equity investor Stephen Adams - has announced it is buying three newspaper divisions from American Consolidated Media (ACM), which had owned The Messenger and other regional papers including the Logan Daily News. . . .

Online information about APG was initially difficult to find, but once the connection with private equity capitalist Stephen Adams was confirmed, it became quite a lot easier. There's quite a bit of biographical and background information available on Adams and his enterprises, including a complete Wikipedia entry and another in Bloomburg BusinessWeek.

A story that ran last Friday in Maryland's CecilTimes, a small news outlet that covers the same community as the Cecil Whig, one of the newspapers in the new APG Media of Chesapeake company, noted that one thing "unusual" for such a large media buyout was "the total absence of any comment by the purchaser - only comments from regional executives of the sellers, ACM, were included in the local newspaper's published reports." . . .

Does the relatively new owners' conservative bent influence the coverage in the three groups of acquired papers themselves? Given the legendary heavy hand of the conservative Huckle family on the southern Minnesota papers--and Hanna's axe-grinding that's as certain as the northern snows, we're not sure how anyone could tell.

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 33166 770th Ave, Ortonville, MN 56278) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

Oct 24, 2016

The Minnesota Jobs Coalition Legislative Fund's September pre-general campaign finance report and disclosure statements made clear that the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) contributed two checks totaling $175,000 to the MNGOP front group.

Where did the RSLC get the money? We embed its third quarter 8872 report for 2016 to the IRS below. Of most interest? On page 11, there's a $50,000 contribution from Hubbard Broadcasting. Corporations are not allowed to give directly to candidates under Minnesota campaign finance law, so it's neat that a major media enterprise found a way around that obstacle.

Hubbard Broadcasting owns television and radio stations across Minnesota, so we'll probably have to check the MJC reports to see how many of the Minnesota Jobs Coalition television and radio attack ads have been placed with the corporation (also neat to cycle those dollars back to the corporation if this is so)

Photo: The Hubbard Broadcasting corporate headquarters building in St. Paul, Minnesota, with the SkyMax 5 tower in the background. by MarkTraceur (Creative Commons license, via Wikipedia).

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 33166 770th Ave, Ortonville, MN 56278) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.